KairosFocus

As the Third Christian Millennium dawns, the Caribbean is at kairos: the nexus of opportunity and risk. In light of the Christocentric fulness theme of Ephesians 4:9 - 24, perspectives and counsel will be offered to support reformation, transformation and blessing towards a truly sustainable future under God.

Saturday, February 03, 2018

The post World War II Presidency of the United States is both the toughest job in the world and one directly relevant (for good or ill) to the Caribbean. Notoriously, if the often despised Yankees sneeze, we catch the 'flu with complications all too likely to follow.Now, too, in the Caribbean, it is fair comment to observe that political punditry, the media, our chattering classes, the degreed, the political advisor classes and power brokers generally reflect that saying in a narrowed sense: our views on American affairs (and thus on global views) typically simply reflect those of the US Congressional Black Caucus. Where, those views as a rule simply reflect the progressivist, cultural marxist agendas that are afoot, and accompanying agit-prop and lawfare. All of these remarks already imply that I fear that our predominant view of American matters and wider world affairs exhibit imbalances and want of objectivity and independence. Yes, after all, I have gone on record about the straight or spin test:

And yes, I am saying that we the educated and credentialled, influential classes of the region are clearly dangerously out of balance.This becomes directly relevant when it comes to our perceptions of Mr Trump, current resident in chief at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.Yes, yes, I don't particularly like him or his manners and style.

Yes, yes, he has obviously had a nasty track record of womanising, is obviously foul-mouthed [he is a contractor on billion-dollar steroids], is of an age [seventy-plus] where racist leanings are to be presumed, and much more.

However, we need to come to a more balanced appreciation for the new breed of political animal he represents, or we may well find ourselves in the position of grand dinosaurs mocking the mammals scurrying about underfoot. With a couple of asteroids a-coming that threaten to inundate our region in tidal waves. (Maybe, my tense is wrong, the impacts have happened and waves have begun to pound our shores.)

I suspect, we would be well advised to remind ourselves on the geostrategic peril of our time before we go on to reflect on a perspective from a noted US observer who has some sobering words:

Radioactive Trump

Thursday, February 1, 2018 Early on during the Republican primary, a conventional wisdom
developed in the media and within political circles that it was suicidal
to engage in ad hominem exchanges with Trump. The mainstream media
meant that assessment as no compliment to Trump.

Journalists sneered
that the showboating Trump had fourteen years of experience in repartee
and ad hoc invective on his reality television hit show The Apprentice.
They also conceded that Trump had long ago learned that, in the
dog-eat-dog world of New York real estate, and in the nasty gossip of
Manhattan’s celebrity scene, going on the preemptive offensive is a
deterrence strategy, crude or not. In such a landscape, gentlemanly
forbearance was not interpreted as magnanimity to be appreciated but as
weakness to be exploited.

Furthermore, in 2016, part of Trump’s message was that an overrated
coastal elite played by stuffy rules of comportment to hide both their
incompetence and hypocrisies. For Trump, the best way of radiating the
establishment was saying anything to anyone at any time
anywhere—especially by inventing schoolyard nicknames that savagely
captured an opponent’s perceived weaknesses and flaws—and begged for a
reply in kind.

The media’s analyses of Trump’s style were true enough. But the
pundits forgot a few other key reasons why the radioactive Trump melted
his opponents. In every one of Trump’s jousts, he was coiled and
reactive—a fact known to his base who defended Trump’s fallout on the
basis of ‘they started it, he finished it.”

Second, Trump’s personal invective was part of a larger assault on
institutions and their representatives who were increasingly perceived
both as hostile to half the U.S. population and hypocritically
self-interested. Because there was merit in his coarse criticism,
Trump’s opponents found themselves reactively defending the scarcely
defensible. Being outraged at Trump often led them mistakenly to be
outraged at his policies.

Conventional wisdom warns Trump that his retaliatory attacks are not
presidential; that they are no longer needed now that he’s in the Oval
Office; that they are counterproductive; and that they turn off
Independent voters, especially Independent women whom Trump will need in
2018 and perhaps 2020.

The counter-argument?

Before Trump, politicians observed Marquis of Queensberry rules of
comportment while they ran up $20 trillion in national debt, left the
border unsecured with 11-15 million illegal aliens residing with
impunity in the United States, failed to achieve significant economic
growth in over a decade, saw middle-class incomes ossify, and could not
translate interventions abroad into strategic victories, while allowing
North Korea to develop nuclear ballistic missiles.

These are already a stunning indictment from someone who is a significant strategic thinker in his own right. The focus now shifts to wider themes.

Some of which, echo uncomfortably in a region that is arguably feeling the destructive half of Schumpeter's creative destruction as the technical base of the global economy palpably shifts beneath our feet:

Globalization before 2016 was seen only as a positive gift. It
certainly was often salutary for most in the world—but not always for
many Americans. Received wisdom held that outsourcing and offshoring
were good for the American economy. Meanwhile, companies fled the United
States. More regulations and bigger government seemed fated. Free trade
de facto was considered fair. Trade deficits like budget deficits were
nothing much to worry about—even as middle-class wages stagnated, the
red-state interior was deindustrialized, and the victims were written
off as losers, deplorables, irredeemables, and clingers who foolishly
had not prepared themselves for the coastal “knowledge based” economy of
the “information age.”

In response, half the country—the more important electoral-college
half—felt that the way politicians had treated their middle-class,
post-industrial malaise was insincere and merely palliative. Then Trump
came along and offered searing radiation treatments designed to kill the
metastases shortly before it poisoned the rescued host—by loudly
promoting seemingly archaic ideas like bringing back capital and jobs
from abroad, deregulating the economy, lowering taxes, and making the
United States more fossil-fuel independent.

Hanson is not finished:

Something similar happened abroad. Most of the world’s signature
establishment institutions beneath the veneer of their polite
nomenclature and mannered protocols were ethically, or at least
administratively, compromised. The United Nations often proved itself to
be an anti-American, anti-Western, anti-Semitic, and anti-democratic
organization, masquerading in tony Manhattan as the voice of global
morality, subsidized by the American hosts it routinely attacked. The
European Union was evolving into an anti-democratic statist project
warped by German mercantilism and German cultural and political
dominance on matters of finance, immigration, and foreign policy that
brooked no dissent. Postwar NATO members had mostly ignored their
commitment to spend 2 percent of their respective GDP on defense to
share the burdens of defending Europe more equitably. Europeans had come
to assume that protecting Europe was more important to Americans than
it was to Europeans. The point is not that these heralded institutions
are unnecessary or incapable of reform. Rather, to change they often
need the sort of toxic criticism that Trump levels because they have
consistently ignored more polite and diplomatic badgering from world
leaders.

He has much more to say, but that is a good starter.Maybe, just maybe, we need to change our approach? As in, do we face:

Witnesses and overseas activists said the paramilitary People's Armed
Police used dynamite and excavators to destroy the Golden Lampstand
Church, which has a congregation of more than 50,000, in the city
of Linfen in Shaanxi province.

ChinaAid, a US-based Christian advocacy group, said local authorities
planted explosives in an underground worship hall to demolish the
building following, constructed with nearly $2.6m (£1.9m) in
contributions from local worshippers in one of China's poorest regions.

The church had faced "repeated persecution" by the Chinese
government, said ChinaAid. Hundreds of police and hired thugs smashed
the building and seized Bibles in an earlier crackdown in 2009 that
ended with the arrest of church leaders.

Those church leaders were given prison sentences of up to seven years
for charges of illegally occupying farmland and disturbing traffic
order, according to state media . . .

Guardian adds: "A Catholic church in the neighbouring province of Shaanxi was also
reportedly demolished last month, 20 years after it originally opened," then goes on to observe:

China guarantees freedom of religion on paper, but in practice
authorities heavily regulate many aspects of religious life. Churches
must be officially sanctioned and pastors must adhere to a host of rules
imposed by the government.

The restrictive policies have given rise to “house” churches,
independent places of worship that exist outside official channels.
Authorities periodically arrest pastors or demolish buildings used by
unsanctioned congregations.

But authorities have taken a harder line since 2013 against towering
crosses and large cathedrals. Officials launched a sweeping crackdown on
churches in Zhejiang province that accelerated in 2015, and more than 1,200 crosses have been removed, according to activists.

In an annual report on freedom of religion, the US state department
found that “the government physically abused, detained, arrested,
tortured, sentenced to prison, or harassed adherents of both registered
and unregistered religious groups for activities related to their
religious beliefs and practices”.

The story then continues, citing a pastor of a nearby church who requested anonymity for very understandable fear of retaliation:

"My heart was sad to see this demolition and now I worry about more
churches being demolished, even my own,” he said. “This church was built
in 2008, there’s no reason for them to destroy it now.”

Where, of course, people who are raising that sort of sum and are building that sort of scale of structure, are obviously going to comply with reasonable permit and regulatory processes. The unreasonable reaction of the authorities is therefore quite revealing.Japan Times gives some useful additional information:

Authorities in northern China’s coal country this week demolished a
well-known Christian mega-church, underscoring long-standing tensions
between religious groups and the officially atheistic Communist Party

Witnesses and overseas activists say paramilitary People’s Armed
Police forces used excavators and dynamite on Tuesday to destroy the
Golden Lampstand Church in the city of Linfen in Shanxi province.

ChinaAid, a U.S.-based Christian advocacy group, said
local authorities planted explosives in an underground worship hall to
demolish the building . . . .

An official at the local religious affairs bureau denied Thursday that
the demolition took place, but pictures distributed by ChinaAid showed
the church’s steeple and cross toppled in a large pile of rubble.

(FAIR COMMENT: China is a leading nation, and the Christian faith is the most persecuted in the world. The implications of this attack should by rights have received the sort of wall to wall coverage that major media now routinely give to items they think are significant. The relatively muted coverage of this issue speaks for itself.)It is noteworthy that Independent goes on to give an estimate of the number of Christians in China as 60 millions, which is likely to be a very "conservative" estimate. The same number appears in other sources, which is likely to make it appear as a consensus number. The reader is cautioned that in such an environment as we are seeing, numbers like that are not likely to be accurate, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the real figure is twice or maybe even approaching three times that value. So now, let us understand the signs of our times and let us be as wise as snakes but as harmless as doves. END

PS: Last year was a very inactive year for this blog, DV I hope to do a lot better this year.

Friday, October 20, 2017

. . . through its constant escalation of its nuclear programme. As CNBC summarises:

Pyongyang's ongoing nuclear aggression may potentially result in South Korea and Japan hosting nuclear weapons on their own turf, a scenario that would have wide-ranging negative consequences, Singapore's leader has warned.

"What's different this time is that North Korea has more nuclear weapons ... so the risks are higher," Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in an interview with CNBC on Thursday.

The scenario being suggested is placement of US tactical nukes on their soil. Not nice, but there may be but little option.

However, longer term implications of North Korean recklessness point to Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Australia going nuclear in their own right. Not good, but it seems that patience since the early 1990's simply gave time for the Kims to move ahead on nukes. END

Here -- video, NYT transcript -- is Gen. Kelly of the US Marine Corps and White House Chief of Staff on making the call to next of kin of those killed in action:His key comment (made to US President Trump): "sir, there’s nothing you can do to lighten the burden on these families . . . "Let us understand, and -- if it is possible at this late stage in the death spiral of a civilisation -- let us learn sobriety once more. END

Thursday, October 12, 2017

Thanks to a friend, I have some follow-up links to yesterday's post:1] Sixteen questions that needed to be answered (a few have subsequently been addressed):Idaho Congressional candidate Michael Snyder raised some pointed questions, prefacing:

The public is not being told the truth about what really went down in Las Vegas. As you will see below, the evidence is mounting that there were multiple shooters and that this was an operation that was planned well in advance. But according to the mainstream media, a 64-year-old retired accountant with a flabby physique who had no military training whatsoever and wasn't very experienced with guns was able to pull the whole thing off all by himself. We are being told that Paddock was a "lone wolf" who didn't have any ties to terror groups, and since he is now dead, nobody is ever going to be able to interrogate him. But the American people definitely deserve some answers about what took place, and that means all of us should keep digging.

The following are 16 unanswered questions about the Las Vegas shooting that the mainstream media does not want to talk about . . .

2] The attack-dog journalism response led to an onward response:Michael Snyder responded to attacks in the media for asking his sixteen questions, starting:

I didn't expect that I would be getting "the Trump treatment" this early in the campaign. Last week, I wrote an article about the Las Vegas shooting that posed 16 questions I did not feel were being addressed by the mainstream media adequately enough. That article was picked up by Zero Hedge, and it has now been read more than 1.6 million times.

All along, I have never claimed to know exactly what happened in Las Vegas. But I feel very strongly that there is nothing wrong with asking questions. In the old days, that is what real journalists would actually do. Unfortunately, the art of critical thinking has almost entirely disappeared from the field of journalism, and so it is up to us in the alternative media to ask the hard questions that "professional journalists" used to pursue.

The emails have been pouring in from many others who also have serious questions about what happened in Las Vegas, but according to the Idaho Statesman, it was improper for me to ever raise any of these questions at all . . .

3] Natural News raised questions about the plausibility of the claimed lone wolf shooter carrying out the attack (noting that the issue is whether he could have acted ALONE to effect the attack):

Even highly trained Navy Seals would have a difficult time running a full auto weapon for 10 minutes straight.
Such weapon systems are brutal on the operator. They require tremendous
strength, stamina and expert troubleshooting to keep running. Full-auto
weapons overheat and jam. They demand incredible strength to keep aimed
on target. They require expert reloading and weapons clearing in the
case of jams, and the hotel room would have been so full of smoke and
powder residue that it would be almost impossible to keep breathing from
that enclosed space.

Far from what the firearms-illiterate media claims, these are not
systems that any Joe off the street can just pick up and use to
effortlessly mow down 500 people. Running these systems requires
extensive training, experience and stamina. It is physically impossible
for a guy like Stephen Paddock to operate such a system in the
sustained, effective manner that we witnessed, especially when shooting
from an elevated position which throws off all the ranging of the weapon
system.

Far from being a Navy Seal, Stephen Paddock is a retired accountant
senior citizen with a gambling problem and a flabby physique . . .

4] Acoustic evidence is being raised as indicating a second shooter NOT in the Mandalay Hotel:

After a detailed forensic acoustics analysis rooted in science and physics, I have affirmatively identified the range / distance of a second shooter
at the Las Vegas massacre. A detailed analysis video, complete with two
whiteboards explaining the acoustics science, will be posted here this
Tuesday.

UPDATE: The video has now been released! See the full video, below…

I have also forensically confirmed that some rifle rounds were,
indeed, coming from a range that is consistent with the distance of the
Mandalay Bay hotel. This analysis is rooted in bullet time of flight
acoustic analysis (forensic acoustics), and it is irrefutable proof
based on the laws of physics. These are bombshell revelations
that may change the course of the investigation. All the math will be
clearly spelled out for you in the upcoming video to be posted here on
Tuesday.

To repeat: YES, my analysis confirms that at least one shooter was
almost certainly positioned at the Mandalay Bay. But a second shooter is
also clearly identified at a significantly closer range through
forensic acoustic analysis. I repeat: There were at least TWO shooters in play,
operating at two very different ranges. One of these ranges is much
closer to the concert venue than the Mandalay Bay property. The evidence
is already encoded in all the audio of all the videos posted on
YouTube . . .

Vid no 1:Vid no 2:(NB: The videos -- apparently unknowingly -- present a form of "crack-thump" analysis. The sharp, high frequency cracks heard are more likely to be sonic booms from supersonic rounds passing near the microphones on the cell phones being used to capture most of the recordings we can see, not pavement hits. With, the thumps being the reports from the discharge of the firearms. And yes, the similar crack of a whip is a miniature sonic boom as the tip speeds up. Lag time analysis is used also for things like estimating range of an earthquake due to different arrival times of P and S waves that typically travel at 5 and 3 km/s. The method is fundamentally sound, the results need to be confirmed by others.)

While the above is not an endorsement, it is a drawing together of evidence that needs to be pondered to gain a more balanced picture than is present in the dominant media narratives. And, the need for that for many, many topics, is the underlying reason for this post and the one yesterday. END

This takes away the underpinnings for the narrative that the guard precipitated the ending of the incident. As at now the 72 minute delay before a SWAT team broke into the prime suspect's room remains as an unexplained but disturbing point. Especially, if a security guard went down wounded under a hail of fire reported to be 200 rounds sent down the hall-way. Surely, that should have triggered guests on that or nearby floors to call security and/or 9/11. BEFORE the headlined attack began.Then, we have the note originally thought to be a suicide note. Nope, a bullet-drop ballistic calculation for the 300 - 400 m to the concert venue, compounded by 32nd floor elevation, maybe ~ 100 m up. Such points to someone with significant knowledge of shooting. Which, is doubly inconsistent with the videos and narrative.

First, serious shooters typically use short, 5 - 7 round bursts with automatic weapons, as this is easier to control and better manages the heat and riding-up due to recoil problems. We were seeing long bursts. Second, a bump fire stock does not sound like a reasonable means of getting rapid fire for long bursts while preserving the sort of accuracy implied by doing a bullet drop calculation. Especially when the target is an area, a concert with 20,000 people and choke-point entrance/exit. And, with Mexico nearby so full automatic weapons were available to someone with the sort of means being described. Likewise, it is questionable that someone like that would put faith in illegal adaptations to full automatic capacity unless done by a serious expert. Bump fire stocks do not fit.Cessation after 9 minutes with maybe 1/2 the ammunition available unexpended and many available guns unfired also does not make sense, especially as the SWAT team was long delayed.In short, things don't add up and dominant media narratives are unravelling for those who are paying close, critical-minded attention. And that's before we get to the shooter profile.

(BTW, it's a little ironic that "303" is the common name for a famous British issue rifle, the Lee-Enfield, and its round.)First, we need some appreciation of the strip:

Next, a 3-D look:

Now, Alex Jones is not a source I generally endorse, but this interview with a former Intel billet military officer and survivalist should give pause -- especially the video showing overlapping, distinct streams of automatic gunfire and that showing near and distant fire. Such point to multiple shooters.

Where, the presence early on of an extremely long burst -- some estimate 120 - 140 rounds -- near the start of the incident made me at first wonder if we were not seeing an AK47 with a 75 round drum magazine. There are 100 round magazines available for the M16 family. But the burst seems to be 20 - 40% longer than anything like that accounts for; the suggestion is that we had here a belt-fed machine gun, similar to an M60 or M240, in addition to rifles with magazines up to 60 or 100 rounds, and it seems a significant number of standard 30 round magazines. With a drug war going on in Mexico, access to such is not a problem.Jones video:Similarly, this video from a YouTube Channel shows evidence of a secondary shooting during that evening involving what a retired marine identifies as automatic weapons fire leading to a panic at the Bellagio, significantly to the north along the strip:But most disturbing in some ways are aspects of the shooter's profile.

A wealthy heavy gambler for 20 years -- tens of thousands per day (with claims of up to a million), visible means of support . . . managing apartments that he partly owned . . . not reasonably fitting with such cash flows, live-in Philippina Australian citizen girlfriend met as a high stakes casino hostess, a pilot owning light aircraft, going here and there including the Middle East, mysterious millions.

The pattern suggests a drugs or low end arms dealer and intelligence asset. One, likely using casinos to launder funds and thus bring them into the "clean" economy.

Such a figure could easily become entangled in a web of multi-directional double-cross dealings and end up as the "patsy" that Lee Harvey Oswald announced himself to be seconds before being fatally shot by Jack Ruby. And that is consistent with ISIS, Antifa, the CIA, FBI and who knows what else being entangled in the case. ISIS has repeatedly claimed responsibility (with hints of a video) and there have been reports of Antifa literature. No wonder, given the way the major media houses have tossed away their objectivity and credibility, that so many are extremely suspicious.I again call attention to the straight vs spin challenge:

Let us realise that we live in an age of mass media manipulation and cynical deception. END

Friday, October 06, 2017

Where of course, if the Americans sneeze, we in the Caribbean proverbially catch 'flu with risks of pneumonia etc. So, we desperately need to understand more about the Limousine-burning, punch- a- 'nazi' "antifa" etc

. . . than what the US Democratic Party-dominated (and increasingly self-discredited) media will tell us in pursuit of their now ever more blatant spin agendas.Video:I of course have long since noted in this blog and elsewhere, that fascism and nazism are indeed to the "right" of bolsheviks such as Stalin et al. But, I have equally noted that they are actually far to the "left" of say a constitutional, rule- of- law democracy with respect for realities of markets that has a so-called mixed economy and encourages free enterprise while seeking to provide for the impoverished, marginalised and vulnerable. Further to all this, I should note that in my view the conventional left-right political spectrum is well past its sell-by date, especially when one moves beyond the extreme "left" of Marxism-dominated ideologies. Which, includes the cultural marxism (aka "critical theories"/"studies") that dominate so much of current academic thought and ideological movements.I have therefore suggested that a more useful frame of thought is to assess on a three-dimensional framework with a diagonal from utter autocracy to utter lawless, leaderless anarchy:

Beyond, let us not be naive about how we can be manipulated and induced into being part of a march of Ac 27 style, ruinous folly in a world that ever more stubbornly turns its back on our Creator and Redeemer:

Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Wassily Leontief won a Nobel Memorial Prize for Economics in 1974 because of his work to create a matrix-based analytical framework for economic modelling. That work was rooted in early 1920's work in the USSR and developments to the point where Leontief created a computer-based model of the US Economy at the turn of the 1950's.

As just one illustration of the utility of such a model -- despite the limitations of its implied linearisation of an inherently nonlinear system, my late Father used an early 23 sector model of Jamaica's economy in the mid-1960's to project development issues and concerns across 20 years, drawing attention to needed strategic interventions to draw out and initially address an almost Malthusian imbalance between population, investment, education gaps and productive potential of the workforce, unemployment and general social welfare.

The following tutorial in four parts (at YouTube -- not a general endorsement, given the rapid rise of web censorship in recent months . . . ) may be helpful to those needing a basic introduction:

Saturday, May 27, 2017

. . . in the first reflective piece that seems to me to sufficiently probe to the core issues, whether or not you are inclined to go along with his points. (Cf. Grant here and note the comments exchange, including the oh you Christians are [potentially?] much the same talking points.) So, please read and ponder -- and ask yourself, what if he has a point? END*FFT = Food for Thought.

Sunday, January 29, 2017

Oh, here is an infograf I shared at UD, not realising that telling little matter:

(I went on to highlight the March for life and my view that the 800+ million unborn children slaughtered globally since the 1970's -- and mounting up at a million more per WEEK -- is the mother cancer that is spreading metastases of perversion, corruption, abuse and deception all across our civilisation, here. Thus, this issue . . . the live, in progress worst holocaust in history . . . is a pivotal focus of our spiritual call to prophetically challenge the nations, calling to repentance, remission of sins and discipleship through the gospel, thus to reformation and God blessed transformation.)

So, too, we now need to ask some pointed spiritual questions.First, Lance in a periscope shared on Jan 23rd:Next, let us refresh memories on the seven mountains vision he has championed. Here, as I have adapted it to the fullness of Christ theme and the four R's of reformation:

In discipleship foundations form:

And yet again, in generic, commanding heights of culture business (yes, SIN) as usual vs the godly, sound alternative form:

From what Lance said, two cars were trashed and torched. That one of these would be his is just too unlikely to be of no spiritual significance. That puts the message he has emphasised at the crux of the matter.

For, if the devil's minions are hitting that close to him, there is a reason.So, too, let us read Acts 19, to see how the demonised mob created chaos to try to attack Paul -- and, notice how the disciples and the Town Clerk responded:

Acts 19:21 Now after these events [the seven sons of Sceva put to flight by a demoniac, etc] Paul resolved in the Spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia and go to Jerusalem, saying, “After I have been there, I must also see Rome.”22 And having sent into Macedonia two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while.

23 About that time there arose no little disturbance concerning the Way.24 For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen.25 These
he gathered together, with the workmen in similar trades, and said,

“Men, you know that from this business we have our wealth.26 And
you see and hear that not only in Ephesus but in almost all of Asia
this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people, saying that gods made with hands are not gods.27 And there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of the great
goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing, and that she may even be
deposed from her magnificence, she whom all Asia and the world worship.”

28 When they heard this they were enraged and were crying out, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”29 So the city was filled with the confusion, and they rushed together into the theater, dragging with them Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians who were Paul's companions in travel.30 But when Paul wished to go in among the crowd, the disciples would not let him.

31 And even some of the Asiarchs,[e] who were friends of his, sent to him and were urging him not to venture into the theater.32 Now
some cried out one thing, some another, for the assembly was in
confusion, and most of them did not know why they had come together.33 Some of the crowd prompted Alexander, whom the Jews had put forward. And Alexander, motioning with his hand, wanted to make a defense to the crowd.34 But when they recognized that he was a Jew, for about two hours they all cried out with one voice, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”

35 And
when the town clerk had quieted the crowd, he said, “Men of Ephesus,
who is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple
keeper of the great Artemis, and of the sacred stone that fell from the sky?[f]36 Seeing then that these things cannot be denied, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rash.37 For you have brought these men here who are neither sacrilegious nor blasphemers of our goddess.38 If therefore Demetrius and the craftsmen with him have a complaint against anyone, the courts are open, and there are proconsuls. Let them bring charges against one another.

39 But if you seek anything further,[g] it shall be settled in the regular assembly.40 For
we really are in danger of being charged with rioting today, since
there is no cause that we can give to justify this commotion.”

41 And when he had said these things, he dismissed the assembly. [ESV]

Mobs, chaos, falsity, accusation [especially materially false accusation], busineses that seek gain from promoting rebellion against God [and demand to be respected as though they were legitimate -- then going out to stir up trouble . . . ], confusion, frenzy, riot are hallmarks of disorder; but our God is the God of sound order and sound authority, truth and right. So, through this contrast the spirits at work are manifest. Where, if you needed more evidence (and pardon language etc) here is Pam Geller's reporter-- yes, I do not endorse her beyond here documenting facts on the ground -- trying to interact with marchers from the Women's march the next day.

Please pardon truly vile language (yet another sign of the animating spirits):This pattern brings things to a focus, the seven mountains challenge. That is, the fullness of Christ theme as strategic focus for the church in these last days:

Eph 1:16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers,17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him,18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places,21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.

22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church,23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills [everything in every way] . . . . Eph 4: . . . 10 He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.)

11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds[c] and teachers,[d]12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry for building up the body of Christ,13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood,[e] to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds.

18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.

20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!—21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus,22 to put off your old self,[f] which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires,23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds,24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. [ESV, 1:23 uses NIV rendering instead of "all in all" also in Eph 4:12 the comma that may be misunderstood is removed.]

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About Me

A Caribbean-based applied scientist, educator and strategic change/ transformation advocate and facilitator; speaking out for record and calling to reformation in light of the patently destructive policy/ geostrategic/ propaganda/ spiritual/ moral- cultural and economic agenda tidal waves pounding on our shores with ever-mounting force. In response to which, we must learn the lesson of Ps 32:9: "Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle . . . "

As Economic policy is too important to be left to economists, politicians and their spin doctors, kindly cf. a KF 101 series on pivotal macro-economics principles and issues: 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, b/g (NB: pamphlet -- pdf -- here)